Over the years, MIdway's flagship Mortal Kombat series has seen its ups and downs. On the upside, the series has produced some quality fighters, including the first two Mortal Kombat games as well as last year's release, Mortal Kombat Deception. But then you have the downside, consisting mainly of examples where the series drifted off formula and tried to do something different. Take, for instance, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, which tried to introduce the ice-wielding ninja in a side-scrolling effort. The results were miserable, to say the least. Midway's next attempt, Mortal Kombat: Special Forces for the PlayStation, failed to do any better.

But now we may very well get a Mortal Kombat-based brawler that could live up to the potential of the series' best fighting games, thanks to a fresh new developer on the project and the promise that the game will be a lot more interactive, about on the same level of Konquest Mode in Deception. The game is called Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, and while it still has many months to go before it meets its September release date, it's moving right along.

The game puts you control of one or two legendary fighters from the MK series, either the razor-like hat-wearing Kung Lao or the legendary martial artist Liu King. The game takes place over the period of a Mortal Kombat Tournament, but, instead of focusing on fighting, it deals with the two warriors trying to discover the truth behind the tournament, as sinister forces are at work attempting a takeover of Earth and perhaps even the Outworld. Along the way, they find themselves facing all sorts of thugs sent by higher forces to stop them, as well as the occasional boss, which will consist of a familiar character like Sub-Zero or Scorpion. Other characters will also make appearances, including Kitana and Goro.

The game will feature a multi-direction Kombat System where you can battle enemies with a variety of attacks, from the fancy projectile attacks both warriors are known for to cool little punch-kick combos that can knock an enemy into a lethal environment (like a lava pit or a wall of spikes) or juggle them in the air for even more hits. The game will include all sorts of brutal bonus attacks, from the typical fatalities that the legend is known for to new brutalities and multalities that will rack up the hit points. Each warrior will have at least ten fatalities, spread across a three-level system that ramps up your skills. You also have the ability of picking up a weapon from time to time to deliver more sinister damage.

The game design will faithfully recreate the Outworld that we remember from the classic games, and the environment will be full 3-D roaming, taking away the pesky problems that plagued the Mythologies project. Character customization will also be added, where you can spend experience points to help boost your skills and get you extra gear and attacks.

On top of that, as you progress further into the game, you'll be able to choose from a series of paths, working up the replayability, and the deeper you get, the more possible it becomes to unlock extra playable characters. Now, I don't know about you, but Kitana would whoop ass in a game like this. Sharpened fans would fly all over the place.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks has a definite amount of promise, indicating that Midway's learned their lessons from the past and are out to make a swell MK-based beat-em-up with plenty of extras. We'll have a playtest on the game soon enough, so keep it here for full coverage. And work on your fatalities, you'll need them when this game arrives this fall.